¹ The first mention of the substitution of congregational psalmody for the old choral mode of worship places it in the reign of King Edward VI: “On March 15, 1550, M. Vernon, a Frenchman by birth but a learned Protestant and parson of St. Martin's, Ludgate, preached at St. Paul's Cross before the mayor and aldermen, and after sermon done they all sung in common a psalm in metre, as it seems now was frequently done, the custom being brought to us from abroad by the exiles.” Nichols's Progress of Queen Elizabeth, I, p. 54.

² “A curious controversy once agitated this body [the Baptists], as to the propriety of singing at all in worship; a practice which, at one period, they generally omitted. Mr. Keach was the first who broke the ice; he began to introduce singing at the ordinance; after a struggle of six years it was added to the devotions of thanksgiving days; and after fourteen years more of perseverance and debate it was permitted at the close of each service on the sabbath, that those who chose might withdraw and not have their ears offended by the sound. The church, however, divided, and the inharmonious formed a new society, which still flourishes in Mays Pond. Isaac Marlowe fiercely opposed Mr. Keach, designating the practice as ‘error, apostasy, human tradition, prelimited forms, mischievous error, carnal worship.’” Thomas Milner; Life, Times, and Correspondence of Rev. Isaac Watts, p. 360.

³ The Hymn-Lover. W. Garrett Horder. P. 98.

⁴ Preface to Sermons on Various Subjects. Vol. I.

⁵ H. L. P. 9. The references are to any edition of the Psalms and the Three Books of Hymns, and to Horae Lyricae, ed. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston, 1854.

⁶ H. L. P. 56.

⁷ II, 67.

⁸ II, 66.

⁹ II, 54.

¹⁰ II, 65.

¹¹ Isaac Watts, His Life and Writings, Homes and Friends, p. 104.

¹² H. L. P. 129.

¹³ H. L. P. 42.

¹⁴ II, 2.

¹⁵ II, 19.

¹⁶ H. L. P. 103.

¹⁷ The Prioresses Tale.

¹⁸ Cf. King John, King Henry V, Coriolanus, Macbeth.

¹⁹ In the Latin Grammar which he wrote for his school of St. Paul's he says: “For the love and zeal that I have to the new school of Paul's and to the children of the same, I have of the eight parts of grammar made this little book. In which, if any new things be of me, it is alonely that I have put these parts in a more clear order, and I have made them a little more easy to young wits than (methinketh) they were before; judging that nothing may be too soft nor too familiar for little children, specially learning a tongue unto them all strange. In which little book I have left many things out of purpose, considering the tenderness and small capacity of little minds…. Wherefore I pray you, all little babes, all little children, learn gladly this little treatise and commend it diligently unto your memories, trusting that of this beginning that ye shall proceed and grow to perfect literature, and come at the last to be great clerks. And lift up your little white hands for me, which prayeth for you to God, to whom be all honour and imperial majesty and glory. Amen.” The Oxford Reformers: Frederic Seebohm; p. 214.

²⁰ H. L. P. 317.

²¹ Ibid. P. 316.

²² H. L. P. 320.

²³ Milner, Thomas: The Life, Times, and Correspondence of Rev. Isaac Watts, p. 372.Google Scholar

²⁴ South's Sermons; Satan Himself Transformed into an Angel of Light.

²⁵ H.L. P. 345.

²⁶ Lives of the Poets. Vol. II, p. 453.

²⁷ H. L. Preface, p. lxxxii.

²⁸ “God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.” Cowper.

“Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,

Dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea,”

Pope; Rape of the Lock. III, 7.

²⁹ H. L. p. 74.

³⁰ Southey's Life of Isaac Watts, in Horae Lyricae. P. xxxix.

³¹ Southey's Life of Isaac Watts, in Horae Lyricae. P. lv.

³² Ibid. P. xxxix.